'Abd al-Malik was a well-educated man and a capable ruler, despite the many political problems that impeded his rule. During his reign, all important records were translated into Arabic, and for the first time a special currency for the Muslim world was minted, which led to war with the Byzantine Empire under Justinian II. The Byzantines were led by Leontios at the Battle of Sebastopolis in 692 in Asia Minor and were decisively defeated by 'Abd al-Malik after the defection of a large contingent of Slavs. The Islamic currency was then made the only currency exchange in the Muslim world. Also, many reforms happened in his time as regards agriculture and commerce.
'Abd al-Malik became caliph after the death of his father Marwan I in 685. Within a few years, he dispatched armies, under al-Hajjaj bin Yousef, on a campaign to reassert Umayyad control over the Islamic empire. Hajjaj first defeated the governor of Basra and then led his forces into Hejaz, where Ibn Zubayr was killed -- ending his short claim to the caliphate. The Siege of Mecca in 692 started with Hajjaj at the head of about 2000 Syrians he set out against 'Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, the caliph of Hejaz at Mecca. Hajjaj advanced unopposed as far as his native Taif, which he took without any fighting and used as a base. The caliph had charged him first to negotiate with 'Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr and to assure him of freedom from punishment if he capitulated. However, if the opposition continued, to starve him out by siege, but on no account to let the affair result in bloodshed in the Holy City. Since the negotiations failed and al-Hajjaj lost patience, he sent a courier to ask 'Abd al-Malik for reinforcements and also for permission to take Mecca by force. He received both, and thereupon bombarded Mecca using catapults from the mountain of Abu Qubays. The bombardment continued during the Pilgrimage or Hajj.
After the siege had lasted for seven months and 10,000 men, among them two sons of 'Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, had gone over to al-Hajjaj, 'Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr with a few loyal followers, including his youngest son, were killed in the fighting around the Ka'ba (October 692).
Hajjaj's success led 'Abd al-Malik to assign him the role of governor of Iraq and give him free rein in the territories he controlled. Hajjaj arrived when there were many deserters in Basra and Kufa. He promptly and forcefully impelled them to return to combat. Hajjaj, after years of serious fighting, quelled religious disturbances, including the rebellion launched by Salih ibn Musarrih and continued after Salih's death by Shahib. These rebels repeatedly defeated more numerous forces and at their height entered Kufah. However, 'Abd al-Malik's Syrian reinforcements enabled Hajjaj to turn the tide.
Under Hajjaj, Arab armies put down the revolt of 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath in Iraq from 699 to 701, and also took most of Turkestan. 'Abd al-Rahman rebelled following Hajjaj's repeated orders to push further into the lands of Zundil. After his defeat in Iraq, again achieved through 'Abd al-Malik's dispatch of Syrian reinforcements to Hajjaj, 'Abd al-Rahman returned east. There one city closed its gates to him and in another he was seized. However, Zundil's army arrived and secured his release. Later, 'Abd al-Rahman died and Zundil sent his head to Hajjaj who sent it to 'Abd al-Malik. These victories paved the way for greater expansions under 'Abd al-Malik's son al-Walid.
'Abd al-Malik was effective in increasing the size of the empire. In the Maghreb (western North Africa), in 686, a force led by Zuhayr ibn Qais won the Battle of Mamma over Byzantines and Berbers led by Kusayla, on the Qairawan plain, and re-took Ifriqiya and its capital Kairouan.
In 695, Hasan ibn al-Nu'man captured Carthage and advanced into the Atlas Mountains. A Byzantine fleet arrived and retook Carthage. However, in 698, Hasan ibn al-Nu'man returned and defeated Tiberios III at the Battle of Carthage. The Byzantines withdrew from all of Africa except Ceuta.
Hasan met trouble from the Zenata tribe of Berbers under al-Kahina. They inflicted a serious defeat on him and drove him back to Barqa. However, in 702, 'Abd al-Malik strongly reinforced him. With a large army and the support of the settled population of North Africa, Hasan pushed forward. He decisively defeated the Zenata in a battle at Tabarka, 85 miles west of Carthage. He then developed the village of Tunis ten miles from the destroyed Carthage. Around 705, Musa ibn Nusayr replace Hasan. 'Abd al-Malik pacified much of North Africa, although he failed to take Ceuta.
'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan was the fifth caliph (685–705) of the Umayyad Arab dynasty centered in Damascus. He reorganized and strengthened governmental administration and, throughout the empire, adopted Arabic as the language of administration.
ʿAbd al-Malik spent the first half of his life with his father, Marwan ibn al-Hakam, the fourth Umayyad caliph, in Medina, where he received religious instruction and developed friendly relations with the pious circles of that city that were to stand him in good stead in his later life. At the age of 16, he was entrusted by his kinsman, the caliph Muʿawiyah, with administrative responsibilities. He remained at Medina until 683, when he and his father were driven out of the city by Medinese rebels in revolt against the central government in Damascus. He then met the Syrian Umayyad army that was marching on Medina and gave its commander advice about the best means of attacking the city, advice that was followed and proved successful. When the caliph Yazid died in November 683, Marwan was proclaimed caliph in 684 and was able to effect a partial rally of Umayyad rule but at the cost of a bitter feud that arose between northern and southern Arab tribes. When Marwan died in 685 and ʿAbd al-Malik succeeded to the caliphate, the forces opposing the Umayyads were still formidable.
There were, first, the northern Arab tribes who, under their leader Zufar, were holding out in northern Syria and Iraq. They were finally pacified only in 691. The second focus of resistance was in Iraq, where three main groups, opposed to each other but united in their resistance to the Umayyads, held sway: the Kharijites, the Shiʿah, and the forces of the anti-caliph ʿAbd Allah ibn az-Zubayr, who was proclaimed caliph in Mecca in 685 and had received at least nominal allegiance from many provinces. The initial attempts by the former Umayyad governor of Iraq, ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ziyad, to regain the province failed, and he was killed by the Shiʿah in 686. For three years, ʿAbd al-Malik made no further attempt to interfere in Iraq but bided his time as the various groups in Iraq exhausted themselves in internecine warfare. Musʿab, the brother of the anti-caliph Ibn az-Zubayr, defeated the Shiʿah in 687 but then had to deal with the Khārijites, committing a large part of his forces.
ʿAbd al-Malik first took the field against Musʿab in 689 but had to turn back to quell a rebellion in Damascus. In the following year, the campaign again proved fruitless. Only after the defeat of the northern Arab tribes in 691 was ʿAbd al-Malik finally able to face Musʿab. The decisive battle took place at Dayr al-Ja Thaliq. The forces of Musʿab were weakened by their wars against the Kharijites, and ʿAbd al-Malik bribed many of them to desert Musʿab, who was then killed in battle. The whole of Iraq now fell into his hands, and the only remaining center of opposition was the now aging anti-caliph, Ibn az-Zubayr. ʿAbd al-Malik publicly chided him for his temerity and then sent his famous governor al-Hajjaj to Arabia. Al-Ḥajjaj besieged Ibn az-Zubayr in Mecca and killed him in September 692. The Muslim community was finally unified.
At first, the re-establishment of Umayyad rule was more apparent than real. The Kharijites were still either restless or in open revolt. The Kharijites in Persia were especially dangerous. It was only after ʿAbd al-Malik had appointed al-Ḥajjaj to govern Basra that campaigns against them began to prove successful (the Persian Kharijites were finally wiped out in 697). But north of Kufah, another Kharijite trouble center developed. In 695, these Kharijites captured Mosul and occupied large areas of central Iraq. Al-Ḥajjaj, leading his Syrian troops, defeated them too in 697. The Kharijite movement, however, remained strong, especially among the Bakr tribes between Mosul and Kufah.
Al-Ḥajjaj had now become governor of all the eastern provinces. He was a ruthless and efficient administrator, intent upon pacifying all the provinces entrusted to him by ʿAbd al-Malik. A great Muslim army, led by an Arab aristocrat, Ibn al-Ashʿath, and operating in the Afghanistan region, mutinied, swore allegiance to its commander, and turned back to Iraq. Al-Ḥajjaj, with the aid of Syrian reinforcements, was able to defeat the rebels, and their leader was murdered in 704 in Afghanistan. Al-Ḥajjaj, realizing that he could no longer trust the Iraqis, built a new city, Wasiṭ, which he planned as a garrison city for Syrian troops and as his private residence. Thereafter, he ruled Iraq as enemy territory.
Under ʿAbd al-Malik, the conquest of North Africa was resumed in 688 or 689. There, the Arabs were opposed by both the native Berbers and the Byzantines. The governor appointed by ʿAbd al-Malik succeeded in winning the Berbers over to his side and then captured Carthage, seat of the Byzantine province, in 697. Other coastal cities fell, and the work of pacification and Islamization continued apace. ʿAbd al-Malik also resumed campaigns against the Byzantines in Anatolia in 692, but no permanent conquest ensued. These campaigns were partly designed to keep the Syrian troops fit.
In general, Umayyad rule was greatly strengthened by ʿAbd al-Malik, who enjoyed good relations with the Medinese religious circles, an element with considerable moral influence in the Islamic world. ʿAbd al-Malik was more pious than any of his Umayyad predecessors. His long sojourn in Medina had enabled him to know the sentiments of Medinese religious scholars. As caliph, he treated them respectfully, and his private life was close to their ideals. As a result, many were to abandon their earlier opposition to Umayyad rule.
ʿAbd al-Malik adopted Arabic instead of the local languages as the language of administration. Government officials had been mostly non-Muslim, but the measures of ʿAbd al-Malik enabled Arab Muslims more easily to control affairs of government. A new Muslim currency was also struck, modelled on Greek and Persian coinage, but with Muslim inscriptions. A wave of Islamization set in, but the privileged position of the Arabs was maintained. In fact, the problem of non-Arab Muslims grew more acute and was to become one of the main threats to Umayyad rule in later years.
The Umayyad family lived in Damascus and surrounded the Caliph. Many of them were appointed as governors, but many were also recalled for inefficiency. ʿAbd al-Malik enjoyed the support of his clan, but he was more autocratic than Muʿawiyah, the first Umayyad caliph, with whom he is often compared. He abandoned the policy of consulting with a council of advisers and reserved all major decisions for himself. Despite his religious interests and ideals (e.g., he built the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem), he was a master politician. In Syria he succeeded in placating the northern Arab tribes, to the chagrin of the southern Arabs.
ʿAbd al-Malik was a shrewd judge of character. His choice of al-Ḥajjāj as viceroy of the East was a wise one, and he supported his lieutenant loyally. In appearance, he was dark, thickset, and had a long beard. He was nicknamed “Dew of the Stone” for his miserliness. The sources describe him as eloquent in his speech and a lover of poetry. He maintained his calm during periods of crisis and was decisive in his opinions but was capable of great cruelty if necessary. He pursued his enemies relentlessly and closely supervised all affairs of state.
Shortly before his death the question of succession became acute. His brother, ʿAbd al-ʿAziz, governor of Egypt, had been designated by their father to succeed ʿAbd al-Malik. Against the advice of his courtiers, ʿAbd al-Malik had begun to take steps to exclude his brother from succession in favor of his own children. He had tried to pressure ʿAbd al-ʿAziz to renounce his claims but without success. Luckily for ʿAbd al-Malik, ʿAbd al-ʿAziz died in May 705. ʿAbd al-Malik then felt free to name three of his own children to succeed him, al-Walid, Sulayman, and Yazid. ʿAbd al-Malik died in Damascus shortly thereafter and was succeeded without difficulty by his eldest son, al-Walid.
'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan was the fifth Umayyad Caliph. He was born in Mecca (Makkah) and grew up in Medina (Medinah) (both are cities in modern day Saudi Arabia). `Abd al-Malik was a well-educated man and capable ruler, despite the many political problems that impeded his rule. The fourteenth century (of the Christian calendar) Muslim historian Ibn Khaldun states: "`Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan is one of the greatest Arab and Muslim Caliphs. He followed in the footsteps of `Umar ibn al-Khattab, the Commander of the Believers, in regulating state affairs".
During the reign of 'Abd al-Malik, all important records were translated into Arabic, and for the first time a special currency for the Muslim world was minted, which led to war with the Byzantine Empire under Justinian II. The Byzantines were led by Leontios at the Battle of Sebastopolis in 692 in Asia Minor and were decisively defeated by the Caliph after the defection of a large contingent of Slavs. The Islamic currency was then made the only currency exchange in the Muslim world. Also, many reforms happened in his time as regards agriculture and commerce. `Abd al-Malik consolidated Muslim rule and extended it. He made Arabic the state language, and organized a regular postal service.
`Abd al-Malik became caliph after the death of his father Marwan I in 685, amidst the ongoing Second Fitna. Within a few years, he dispatched armies on a campaign to reassert Umayyad control over the Islamic empire. He first defeated the governor of Basra Mu'sab ibn al-Zubayr. `Abd al-Malik then appointed one of his most able generals and administrators who would later change the face of the Umayyad Empire, al-Hajjaj bin Yousef to march against `Abd-Allah ibn al-Zubayr, the governor of Hejaz. He besieged Mecca (Makkah) in 692 with almost 12,000 Syrian troops. He advanced unopposed as far as his native Taif, which he took without any fighting and used as a base. The caliph had charged him first to negotiate with `Abd-Allah ibn al-Zubayr and to assure him of freedom from punishment if he capitulated, but, if the opposition continued, to starve him out by siege, but on no account to let the affair result in bloodshed in the Mecca. The negotiations failed and al-Hajjaj lost patience. Al-Hajjaj sent a courier to ask 'Abd al-Malik for reinforcements and also for permission to take Mecca (Makkah) by force. He received both, and thereupon bombarded the Holy City using catapults from the mountain of Abu Qubays. The bombardment continued during the month of the Pilgrimage or Hajj. 'Abd al Malik served first as a messenger to his father 'Abd al Haija
After the siege had lasted for seven months and 10,000 men, among them two of 'Abdullah Ibn al-Zubair's sons, had gone over to al-Hajjaj, 'Abd-Allah ibn al-Zubayr with a few loyal followers, including his youngest son, were killed in the fighting around the Ka'ba (Kaaba) (Jumadah I 73/October 692).
Hajjaj's success led 'Abd al-Malik to assign him the role of governor of Iraq and give him free rein in the territories he controlled. Hajjaj arrived when there were many deserters in Basra and Kufa. He promptly and forcefully impelled them to return to combat. Hajjaj, after years of serious fighting, quelled religious disturbances, including the rebellion launched by Salih ibn Musarrih and continued after Salih's death by Shabib. These rebels repeatedly defeated more numerous forces and at their height entered Kufah. However, 'Abd al-Malik's Syrian reinforcements enabled Hajjaj to turn the tide.
Under Hajjaj, Arab armies put down the revolt of 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath in Iraq from 699 to 701, and also took most of Turkestan. 'Abd al-Rahman rebelled following Hajjaj's repeated orders to push further into the lands of Zundil. After his defeat in Iraq, again achieved through Abd al-Malik's dispatch of Syrian reinforcements to Hajjaj, 'Abd ar Rahman returned east. There one city closed its gates to him and in another he was seized. However, Zundil's army arrived and secured his release. Later, 'Abd ar Rahman died and Zundil sent his head to Hajjaj who sent it to 'Abd al-Malik. These victories paved the way for greater expansions under 'Abd al-Malik's son Al-Marwan.
Caliph Abd al-Malik was effective in increasing the size of the empire. In the Maghrib (Maghreb) (western North Africa) in 686 a force led by Zuhayr ibn Qais won the Battle of Mamma over Byzantines and Berbers led by Kusayla (Kusaila), on the Qairawan plain, and re-took Ifriqiya and its capital Kairouan.
In 695, Hasan ibn al-Nu'man captured Carthage and advanced into the Atlas Mountains. A Byzantine fleet arrived and retook Carthage. However, in 698 Hasan ibn al-Nu'man returned and defeated Tiberios III at the Battle of Carthage. The Byzantines then withdrew from all of Africa except Ceuta.
Hasan met with trouble from the Zenata tribe of Berbers under al-Kahina, the Berber queen, religious and military leader. They inflicted a serious defeat on Hasan and drove him back to Barqa. However, in 702, 'Abd al-Malik strongly reinforced Hasan. With a large army and the support of the settled population of North Africa, Hasan pushed forward. He decisively defeated the Zenata in a battle at Tabarka, 85 miles west of Carthage. He then developed the village of Tunis ten miles from the destroyed Carthage. Around 705 Musa ibn Nusayr replaced Hasan. He pacified much of North Africa, though he failed to take Ceuta.
Abd al-Malik instituted many reforms such as:
- Making Arabic the official language of government across the entire empire,
- Instituting a mint that produced a uniform set of Islamic currency which resulted in war with Byzantine Empire and defeat of the Romans at the Battle of Sebastopolis;
- Expansion and reorganization of postal service; and
- Repairing the damaged Ka'ba (Kaaba) and beginning the tradition of weaving a silk cover for the Ka'ba (Kaaba) in Damascus.
The two engineers Yazid ibn Salam, a Jerusalemite, and Raja' ibn Hayweh, from Baysan, were ordered to spend generously on the construction. In his Book of the Geography, Al-Muqaddasi reported that seven times the revenue of Egypt was used to build the Dome.
The last years of the reign of were generally peaceful. 'Abd al-Malik wanted his son al-Walid I to succeed him, ignoring his father's decree that 'Abd al-Malik should be succeeded by his brother, 'Abd al-Aziz. However, 'Abd al-Malik accepted advice not to create disturbances by carrying out this design. In any event, 'Abd al-Aziz died before 'Abd al-Malik. 'Abd al-Malik then had his sons al-Walid and Sulayman, in that order, accepted as heirs to the throne. To history, Abd al-Malik is known as the "Father of Kings": his four sons succeeded him as the caliph one after another. Abd al-Malik died at Damascus (al-Sinnabra) in 705.
Alternative names include:
'Abd al-Malik
'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan
Al-Malik
Al-Malik, 'Abd
"Father of Kings"
Ibn Marwan
Ibn Marwan, 'Abd al-Malik
No comments:
Post a Comment